Friday, September 21, 2012

Variant Forms of the Squick and Ickorous (Random Table, Wermspittle)

Variant Forms of the Squick and Ickorous Table
(Jellies, Slimes, Fungi, Molds and related things...)
  1. A discolored patch of writhing wetness that tries to stay out of bright light and prefers to cling to the undersides of rotting leaves, old wooden buckets, and exceptionally unsanitary areas. (1 HD, Attack 1d2, 60% chance of amoebic infection: Save or suffer dysentery for 1d4 days.)
  2. Blue granular masses roughly arranged into crude hexagonal structures grow along vertical surfaces. The colony moves slowly as it develops. It generates a noticeable drop in temperature wherever it takes root. When exposed to blood the primary ridges along the edges of each hexagon rapidly extrude sharp fronds that in time harden into ferrous blades.
  3. Scabrous yellow pus-like matter ringed with olive and black. The whole thing looks like a mass of gangrenous flesh or a free-standing tumorous mass. It gives off a sickly sweet scent that only grows increasingly more nauseating whenever it becomes immobilized or dormant for any length of time. The fluids contained within the central vaguely bulbous mass cause any flesh exposed to it to rot away. Assassins have been known to use glass knives filled with this fluid; when snapped off inside a wound, the fluid causes rapid gangrene deep inside the victim's body, often killing them before anyone can do anything to stop it.
  4. A more viscous and yellowish puddle of slime that wriggles and grows towards the nearest source of bacteria, fungi or yeast. Does 1d2/day to untreated wood, otherwise stats are as above. Upon reaching 8 or more HD, there's a 50% chance that the creature will erupt into a cloud of spores or spatter gobs of wet spore-clumps within a 30' radius when struck.
  5. Pinkish-yellow clots of goo floating within a protoplasmic envelope. (Attack is a form of externalized digestion, no flagella.) This stage of development is much sought after by vivilatrists and others as the 'goo' within the protoplasmic sac is extremely plastic and can be used to adapt, alter or develop myriads of subsidiary life forms, including some of the more common manufactured jellies.
  6. Gray paste that tends to accumulate along ceiling edges. It produces a rancid smelling oily fluid that promotes wood-rot.
  7. Greenish-yellow slime-mold slowly crawling along any surface, usually out of sight. Very wet, often drips or dribbles small bits that will eventually become fully autonomous versions of itself. Prefers drains, clogged eaves, refuse piles, and especially cess-pits. Inflicts double damage on Grouts by way of cellular infiltration.
  8. Faintly luminous pink syrup. Close inspection shows vacuoles and dark little masses suspended in the fluid. The outer membrane is extremely pliable and selectively permeable. Contact with the internal fluids results in 1pt of damage per minute of exposure. Water or milk neutralizes the fluid's harmful properties. Alcohol tends to dissolve the membrane, rendering the organism a toxic, flammable mess.
  9. Brownish clumps. This specimen is inert.
  10. A drizzly yellow-brown collective mass is forming a stalk that will produce a fruiting body within 1d4 days. The fruiting body will explode for 3d6 damage within a 30' radius, spraying spores everywhere. Save or suffer infection.
  11. Rusty curdled lumpy mess covered with a fuzzy coating of thin hair-like tendrils. It looks a little like a caterpillar, and often gets over-looked as such unless carefully examined. The tendrils deliver a virulent nerve toxin and the central mass secretes a dull phlegmy-green poison whenever the slime-mold is allowed to adhere to bronze, which it corrodes and dissolves over time.
  12. Blue-spotted egg-shaped nodules projecting from a frothy mass of undifferentiated protoplasm. Each 'egg' is in fact a glistening mass of tightly packed needle-fine hair-like cilia that will instantly shoot out and skewer warm-blooded hosts that brush up against them or get too close. The cilia-strike is incredibly rapid and the intended victim must make a Save at -4 penalty of be surprised. Failure means that they've been skewered, requiring a second Save (normal) to determine whether or not the spores forcibly driven into their flesh have become active. These spores can remain embedded and inert for decades before conditions are right and they finally begin to devour their host from within.
  13. Green-yellow blobs of mucous-like slime roll around like strange slugs that flatten-out and envelope fungi, mold, or rotting things. Some produce very colorful umbrellas of slime, others look more like squished flowers built up from layers of still-wet oil paint. At least 50% of the time they are poisonous (Save +1).
  14. Lurid blue ooze that numbs all exposed flesh it touches. Exposure for more than a full minute tends to render a limb useless for up to an hour. Prolonged exposure will cause the victim to stop breathing, which is helpful to the ooze which then enters the body via any/all available orifices to hasten its digestion of their prey.
  15. Ochre and tan smears, sometimes they overlap, other times they appear parallel. A crude slime-mold that gives off an odor like stale cheese. It is one of the few truly carnivorous slime-molds in that it envelopes small animals and compresses them so as to suffocate them even as it digests them. There are rumors of large specimens that have grown-up around Distilleries and dump-sites where Spectral Brine and other, similar toxic waste has been allowed to accumulate.
  16. This specimen has achieved a low-order form of sentience and has learned a number of simple tricks. It shows clear signs of fear as it attempts to flee from salt-boxes, other jellies, or fire.
  17. A rancid patch of virulent brown slime. Contact with this thing will discolor exposed flesh/leather, and inflict 2d6 damage. It doesn't move much, but it can emit a puff of toxic spores every 1d6 minutes for an additional 2d4 damage. It is highly flammable, but the resulting smoke will cause 6d4 damage within a 30' radius and linger for 1d4 hours.
  18. Black, tarry slime that is attracted to silver, which it tarnishes by simple proximity as a result of the heavy haze of complex chemistry surrounding the thing. It is feared by members of upper class household staff who are charged with maintaining the heirloom silver in particular. Large specimens have been known to ooze along the outside of pipes used for water distribution or other forms of plumbing in order to gain access to locations where quantities of silver can be found. No one knows how this amorphous slime knows where to go, but it probably has more to do with chemistry than anything psychic.
  19. Amorphous, colorless and incredibly translucent, this gelatinous pest swims along in fresh water hunting small fish, insect larvae, bacterial colonies, and the like. When ingested, it infiltrates its host's body by quickly transferring itself into the bloodstream. The host suffers debilitating pain in the course of this process, but once the parasitical mass has integrated itself into the bloodstream, the fever passes and the host resumes life as normal. Only now their blood quickly becomes a transparent, viscous fluid that progressively transforms their flesh from the inside-out into a translucent, increasingly amorphous matter that bleeds across other forms of space and time than what the host may have ever imagined existed.
  20. Thin (under 1" at thickest), but wide-spread patch of slime-mold has formed a mockery of a vaguely human face. It has randomly determined INT, WIS and CHAR, and will trade information for instruction in spell-casting techniques. It wishes to become a sorcerer. It knows 3d6 Random Rumors.
Note: this random table was extracted and revised from the original which appeared as part of the Brewer's Bane post. We removed it and gave it a post of its own because it is too useful to leave buried under the Myxogastrians.

1 comment:

  1. This is amazing in itself, and as another layer to Wermspittle a very pungent one. It hints at major goings-on and maybe essences.

    ReplyDelete

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